


If We Make It

by MelyndaR



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies), Thor - All Media Types, Wolverine (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 18:30:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13553127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: During the war with Thanos, Darcy is assigned to a grumpy guard, who might not actually be as grumpy as she gives him credit for.





	If We Make It

_“Come join us in the Tower,” they said. “We miss you, Darcy,” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said._

And then some big purple guy invaded earth, the world over went tits up, and the suddenly massive team of superheroes started dividing their assets, trying to fight the main battles, but also trying to keep certain, apparently irreplaceable, people safe. For the latter type of mission – or _missions_ , because even though Thor had decided that _she_ was one of those irreplaceable people, she had to assume that there were also others – someone had made the in-Darcy’s-opinion shaky decision to put some of their newer team members on protection details.

So. Darcy had started out _back_ in Norway with some brash, fighty, half-drunk possibly-an-Asgardian called Valkyrie. But then Valkyrie had been deemed necessary for the real fight, and had left Darcy in the hills of what she was pretty sure was West Virginia. At least Janey had already been there, with Laura Barton and a restless trio of children. The fight must’ve been getting worse, because now they were six protectees to one protector, and he, without even trying, was grumpier then Valkyrie at her worst.

Baby Nate had taken one look at Victor Creed and started crying. After two days crammed into an actual, factual _cave_ with him and everybody else, Darcy kind of wanted to cry, too. She missed Valkyrie, and even Norway, and the _sun_.

At least Creed had been able to keep a fire going at all times to battle the chill that permeated the air this deep inside their natural shelter. Jane had found the one hole in the ceiling of the cave that shot all the way to the outdoors, and she’d spent her nights staring at the stars, so at least there was nothing new there. It helped to hold onto the tiniest unchanged things when occasionally the explosions and battles from Darcy didn’t even know where became so loud that they reached her ears all the way out here in the middle of nowhere.

The most recent attack nearby – though for all she knew, it could’ve been in DC – reminded her of a WWII air raid. It sounded like someone was dropping bombs like rain, though that hardly made sense. _Since when did the Avengers deal with bombs, or drop them themselves,_ she wondered, but decided she might not want to know this time around. Because this guy they were fighting was _different_ , and the result, she could feel in her bones, was going to be _bad_ , even if they did win at the end of the day _._

 As the explosions continued, Laura held Nate in her arms as she sat backed against the farthest wall, and Cooper was curled into her side, his toy bow and arrow clutched tightly in his hands. Darcy’s heart broke for them, for the wide-eyed, pale-faced terror written all over Cooper, and for the silent tears on Lila’s face as she sat beside her big brother with her hands over her ears.

The explosions weren’t _that_ bad, Darcy thought, it was just that Lila wanted to block them out _that much_. Darcy could sympathize. She sat with her toes nearly touching Cooper’s, with Jane between her and the wall, the two women holding hands tightly.

“’S all fine,” their mostly silent bodyguard said as he came back from scoping out the situation from the mouth of the cave. “Whatever’s going on actually isn’t close enough to affect us.”

Jane and Darcy both breathed a little easier then, and she saw Laura relax visibly as she told Cooper to go play, anything to give her kids a moment of normalcy. The boy unfolded himself from the floor and moved a few steps away, beginning to construct something with the rocks that littered the floor of the cave. Lila, however, refused to move an inch further from her mother as Laura turned away from the rest of them, affording herself as much privacy as possible as she began to nurse her fussy infant.

Jane wandered off too, and in her moment of distraction, Laura must not have heard as Lila asked her mother in what was still a terribly small voice, “Can I sit on your lap?”

She was too young for this mess, and just looking for a second of comfort from her mom, and the fact that Laura simply hadn’t heard was enough to make distressed tears start welling up in the little girl’s eyes almost before they’d disappeared from the first round of crying.

Darcy’s heart nearly broke in half a second time at the sight, but before she could say a word, Victor’s deep voice rumbled as quietly as he could get it, Darcy had a feeling, “You can come here, if you want, Lila-bird.” Both Darcy and Lila turned towards the unexpected voice with wide eyes. Seeing that he’d quite possibly made her terror worse, Victor sighed, telling the girl in the same trying-to-be-gentle tone, “I had a little brother, once upon a time. We learned pretty early how to hold onto one another, and I’d like to think that I give pretty good cuddles when they’re needed.”

Lila backed closer to Laura without taking her eyes off Victor. By now, Laura was paying closer attention to each of her children’s whereabouts, and pulled Lila close.

Victor shrugged, not surprised that his offer of protectiveness had been turned away, and went back to listening to whatever he could hear beyond the walls of their cave.

Hours later, after night had fallen, Victor was still in the same spot. Laura and her kids were curled in a corner of their little hideout, sound asleep and reminding Darcy of a litter of pups in a den. Jane had fallen asleep looking at the stars, and Darcy had given up her own blanket to drape it over her friend before she returned to the middle of the cave, keeping her own watch over their motley crew. She shivered, staring into the fire that had been allowed to die down a bit for the sake of darkening their sleeping area.

Victor twitched, and his voice floated back to Darcy over his shoulder as he asked in a quiet voice, “Do _you_ want to sit on my lap?”

“Why would I do that?” Darcy asked, pretending she hadn’t startled at the unexpected question.

“Because you’re cold, and I have the last blanket _and_ an inhumanly high body temperature which means I naturally give off more heat.” He glanced back at her, his eyes sparkling pinpricks in the darkness. He smiled, and for once the flash of his fangs didn’t make the expression scarier. “For the sake of survival and comfort, Darcy. You don’t have to read anything into it.”

Still wary, she was enough of a grownup – and an icicle – to admit that he had a point. She scrambled onto her feet and sat back down at his side. “I didn’t even realize you knew my name,” she admitted, just for something to say as he readjusted the blanket so that it was draped over them both.

“Of course I do. You’ve been here for a week, and we don’t really have a choice but to listen to one another’s conversations.”

She blinked, shocked to realize that he was right; she had been in this cave for a week. No wonder the Barton kids were going a little stir-crazy.

She was just about to ask him how he could hear everything that he did from here – _what exactly **was** he? _– when she yawned instead.

“Sleep, Darcy; I’m here as the watchman, not you.”

“I’m fine,” she grumbled – even as she curled closer to him.

“Oh, I know you are,” he shot back, draping his arm over her shoulders to better accommodate her movements.

“…And you shouldn’t have to do all the babysitting,” she continued, only distantly registering what he’d said as she already began to drift off.

“Think nothing of it,” he repeated the sentiment a second time, adding this time, “Unless you want to. If you _do_ want to think something of a good long cuddle – nothing more yet because of the kiddies, mind you – I’d be fine with that, too. If you would be willing to consider something between you and I once we get out of here, that is.”

As quickly as she had begun to drift off, she was wide awake now, though she hadn’t dared to move her head from where it had landed against his shoulder. He’d begun to ramble, just a bit considering who it was, and he’d begun to make a little less sense – after all, he had to be exhausted at this point – but she understood what he was getting at.

She considered it, running back over what she had seen of him in the past week. Sure, he came off as gruff as… well, a sabretooth tiger, for example, maybe, but… he had also tried to offer them the comforts that he could. He had tried to be kind to them, and under these circumstances that was saying something.

“Okay,” she agreed, burrowing closer to him. “ _If_ we make it out of this.”

It took her a second to register the hand running softly through her hair as he promised, “I’ll make _sure_ we make it, sweetheart; you don’t have to worry about that.”


End file.
